El Al, Israel’s national airline, has more traffic than it can cope with on its trans-Atlantic route and is chartering additional planes to handle the growing load, it was reported here. The company has just been authorized by the United States Civil Aviation Board to charter aircraft from World Airways Inc. sufficient to provide 15 additional round flights. El Al presently operates 24 trans-Atlantic flights per week using seven of its own planes and two chartered jets. The company’s load factor-the ratio of passengers carried to number of seats available-is now running at 95 percent, 30 percent over the average load factor of other trans-Atlantic airliners, the company said.
El Al has reported a profit for the ninth consecutive year. It said the profit, $1.6 million, will permit it to write off previous losses remaining on the balance sheet and will leave some $570,000 for dividends or a bonus to shareholders.
These figures were disclosed in the company’s annual report submitted by Israel Minister of Transport Moshe Carmel, who is chairman of El Al, and its president, Mordechai Ben Ari. The report also announced that El Al will spend $163 million for four new American-made planes to be in service by 1975. Two are Boeing 707s and two are Boeing’s jumbo 747 jets. El Al operates passenger services between Israel, Europe and New York, and from Israel to South Africa. It announced recently that it hoped to expand its route to include additional American and European cities.
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